FCC may play Robin Hood taking form rich broadcasters and giving to the poor mobile broadband providers

The FCC is considering many ways to
increase the amount of available wireless spectrum to be had for
wireless broadband service. According to the FCC and others, the
country is already facing a looming shortage of airwaves to support
broadband.

One of the plans on the table for the FCC to
consider would have it taking
back a portion of the airwaves that TV broadcasters are currently
using and auctioning those off to wireless broadband providers. Blair
Levin, the person in charge of crafting the FCC national broadband
plan said, "The record is very clear that we're facing a looming
spectrum gap."

It is not clear at this early stage if the
proposal to take some of the airwaves away from TV broadcasters will
make it to the final FCC national broadband plan or not. The final
plan is set to be released in January. What is clear is that if the
taking back of broadcaster airwaves does make the final plan,
broadcasters will fight.

The National Association of
Broadcasters spokesman Dennis Wharton said, "[The NAB] believes
it is imperative that policy makers explore spectrum efficiency
choices that don't limit consumer access to the full potential of
digital broadcasting."

The FCC would not simply take the
airwaves away and would reportedly spend about $12 billion to buy the
airwaves back and $9 billion to move homes using OTA TV to digital or
subscription services. However, the auction for the reclaimed
spectrum would net the FCC as much as $62 billion.

The homes
relying on these airwaves are also likely to be among those that just
purchased new TVs or converter boxes during the digital
transition that happened this summer adding more confusion and
expense for them. Wharton continued saying, "CEA's study ignores
the immeasurable public benefit of a vibrant free and local
broadcasting system that is ubiquitous, reliable as a lifeline
service in times of emergency, and flexible enough to include HDTV,
diverse multicast programming and mobile DTV."

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This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

You are only posting half the story here. This is an effort to shut down conservative news/opinion outlets like Fox News. If you had bothered to write on how they determine which airwaves they steal from, you would see how blatant this proposal is.

EVERY administration lets politics influence it decisions. Republicans and Democrats both. However, while I would not shed any tears if Fox News went away, I agree that it's dirty and should not be allowed to happen.

Again, this is just rhetoric. Where is the proof that that this is aimed at shutting down Fox News? Isn't Fox News a cable channel? Do they use FCC-regulated airwaves in any way? Normally only local channels use OTA transmission.

Sounds like the only "national news" reporting this story is probably Fox News. As usual, they're creating a controversy where there is none so that they and reactionaries like yourself can feel like martyrs that the "liberal establishment" has in their cross hairs.

America has been on a long journey. The slavery of the blacks, the reconstruction era, "the yellow peril", women getting the vote, equal rights for gays - the story of America is one of prejudice overcome by righteousness.

And now we have one festering sore of prejudice left to overcome: the unjust, ubiquitous persecution of conservatives.

Many years from now, we're going to look back at this era, with the persecution of Fox News, Limbaugh and conservatives generally and say to ourselves: "how far we've come!". We'll ask each other: "What did YOU do to stop this injustice?"

Luckily there are a few posters here who will have an answer to that: "I personally advocated for the downtrodden conservatives on the comments section of tech-websites, long a cog in the anti-conservative agenda".

School texts will have a chapter on slavery, a chapter on sexism, and one really long and detailed one on that last bastion of discrimination: the story of the repressed conservatives.

I'm sure you feel quite good about yourself now that you think you are right. I watch the news. I watch all factions of the news. The white house has been purposefully bashing Fox news and known conservatives ever since our great dictator took office. If you think that they aren't trying to control free speech then your are quite simply put, "a f#$&%@# retard."

Liberal agenda is destroying this nation. Nationalized health care is just the beginning if we let this happen. The majority of Fox news is DEAD SET AGAINST national health care. Does it not seem logical that they are in their cross hairs?